Blogs

Jeter's Next Big Swing

"I don't miss playings," says the retired Yankee, as the press-shy captain leads website The Players' Tribune, where DeAndre Jordan and Tiger Woods break news (sorry, ESPN) and backers are betting on a media home run

Long-form awards could move to separate cable event

The major TV networks have broached the idea with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences of expanding the number of networks that share in the rotation of the Primetime Emmy awards show to include cable networks and possibly to split it into two separate shows, one for broadcast and another to air on cable or pay TV.

These and other ideas came up in a meeting between executives of CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC in early August, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal's website Monday.

While the audience for Sunday's show was up from 2008, it was still down by nearly a third from 2002, the last time the major networks negotiated a license agreement with ATAS to carry the show in a rotating "wheel," which has seen each of the four air the program twice over the past eight years.

The idea of expanding who carries the program, and even splitting it into more than one show, would address a major concern of broadcasters, who compete fiercely in the series category, both for scripted and reality programming, but have all but abdicated the movie of the week, long-form and miniseries type of programs to cable and especially to pay TV. The most notable is HBO, which again was the top winner at the Emmys, both on Sunday and a week earlier at the Creative Arts Emmys.

The idea seems to be having one Primetime Emmys show for the series categories, which would air on a broadcast network, and another for the long-form programs, which would air on a cable or pay TV service. If it was on pay TV, based on past discussions, the pay wall -- which would exclude nonsubscribers -- would be dropped for that night, so all cable subscribers could see the show

Broadcast executives, in off-the-record conversations with THR, have previously expressed their frustration with airing a show that is mostly a huge promotional postcard for HBO and cable. Having separate shows could solve that problem.

It could also open the way for ATAS, which depends on the Emmy show for most of its budget, to have additional products to license and ultimately bring in even more revenue. Each show in this era would also have multiplatform components on the Internet and over mobile devices, as well as pay-per-view, home video and other ancillary revenue.

So what is a problem could become a solution for ATAS, which at the moment is not commenting on any of this.